Clinton Campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton “disagrees with (Mateen’s) views and disavows his support”.
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Seddique Mateen, whose son killed 49 patrons at the LGBT nightclub Pulse in Orlando June 12, was prominently visible on a rally stage behind Clinton August 8 in Kissimmee, Florida, just 30 minutes from the Orlando tragedy site.
Seddique’s presence at the rally was controversial because he claims he was “invited” to the event, even though neither he nor the Clinton campaign deigned to comment on this alleged invitation.
An official with the Clinton campaign said: ‘The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public.
You know, for once we don’t doubt that Clinton’s campaign is telling the truth … but imagine for a moment that a character like this showed up at a Donald Trump rally?
Mateen told the WPTV reporter he wishes his son had “joined the Army and fought ISIS. If I would have known that, I would have not come”. Asked why he chose to attend an event that was located miles away from the scene of the Orlando shooting, he said simply “I spoke a lot about that and wish that my son joined the Army and fought ISIS”.
“We have been helping, and we were cooperating with federal government, FBI, and that’s about it”, he told WPTV’s Tory Dunnan shortly after the event.
Mateen had also traveled to Washington to promote his view that Pakistan was “the capital of terrorism” and that Afghans needed more support, especially in border disputes.
On Clinton’s campaign website, the only information requested in the RSVP for the Kissimmee rally was a first and last name, email address, phone number and ZIP code.
While Hillary paid tribute to the 49 people killed by radical Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen, his dad Seddique cheered and waved an American flag in the audience (see video).
However when the same news crew bumped into Mateen again at a gas station later than evening, he agreed to speak on camera about his support for the former Secretary of State.
“But you know what they’re not talking about? That would be much better”, he said.
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“Why they should be surprised?” he asked.
